The Locomotive Manipulation
"The Locomotive Manipulation" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired February 6, 2014. Summary For , Amy plans a weekend trip to onboard a vintage . Leonard and Penny are staying home watching Cinnamon for Raj and have an accident. Extended Plot Amy and Sheldon are reviewing their relationship agreement with Amy objecting to Sheldon's pet names for her which includes "Gollum " and "flaky". Amy has arranged for a trip to a in . They will have a romantic dinner on their way onboard a vintage , an experience they should both enjoy. She also arranged for separate and for Howard and Bernadette to join them to make Sheldon more comfortable. During dinner in Apartment 4A, Leonard comments that they aren't joining them since he has to keep Penny out of country. They are going to spend a quiet night at the apartment watching Raj's dog since Raj is spending another night in the laboratory. Sheldon wants to make sure that he and Howard are not wearing the same on the train though Howard doesn't have one. On Valentine's Day, Penny gives Leonard and and Leonard teases her that she is trying to get him out of his panties. Leonard has tickets for her so that she can take anybody else to the game. After they decide to not do it in Sheldon's spot, they adjourn to Leonard's bedroom. Later they realize that Cinnamon has eaten Leonard's chocolates so they take the dog to the vet since chocolate makes dogs sick. Shamy and Howardette are having dinner on the train. Sheldon is having a great time and finds someone behind him that loves trains as much as he does. After being told by Bernadette to come back and have with them, he brings his new friend along. Raj arrives at the vet and is very angry at Leonard and Penny for their carelessness. Cinnamon is fine after being checked over by Yvette, a lovely . They both own dogs and seem to enjoy each other's company. Back on the train, Amy asks everyone to leave so she can talk to Sheldon. Again, she tells him that he shouldn't bring other people along on their . Sheldon feels that using this weekend trip Amy was manipulating him. He says that their weekend was more about her. Amy admits that she was looking for some romance. Sheldon gets upset and tells her that he was going to give her romance. He drinks some of the wine and then stares into her eyes for a few seconds. She blinked first so Sheldon wins. Then he tells her that he is going to her and plants one on her lips. At first Sheldon is kissing her to prove a point, but then he begins to enjoy it and lingers awhile. Amy tells him that the kiss was nice. Then they go off to look over the train with Sheldon's new friend in tow. When Raj is at home and realizes that the vet had given him her . Sheldon returns home in a very good mood as Leonard interrogates Sheldon for details about his kiss with Amy. Sheldon isn't sure that his kiss with Amy was the highlight of the weekend. http://forum.the-big-bang-theory.com/topic/4037-season-7-taping-reports/ Notes *'Title Reference:' Sheldon feels that Amy is trying to manipulate him into romance while having dinner aboard a vintage train. *Taping date: January 14, 2014 *Chuck Lorre's vanity card. TBD *This episode was watched by xx.xx million people with a rating of x.x (adults 18-49). * Total viewers including DVR users xx.xx million. * The Big Bang Theory was ranked #x for the week ending xx February 2014. * This episode aired in Canada on February x, 2014 with xx million viewers with a weekly ranking of #X. In England, this episode aired on {date} with million viewers and a weekly ranking of #X. Critics To be entered. Trivia *This is the second episode filmed on a train heading to the San Francisco area, the first being in "The Terminator Decoupling" (S2E17). *The idea of taking a train to Napa Valley was previously suggested by Raj for Howard's bachelor Party in "The Stag Convergence" (S5E22). *The idea of double date of Sheldon, Amy, Howard and Bernadette was previously suggested by Amy in "The Recombination Hypothesis" (S5E13) - although finally it turned out to only happen in Leonard's day dream. *Previously Leonard and Penny have intended to make out on Sheldon's spot in The Pirate Solution (S3E04) but that time they are interrupted by Howard. *A probable reason why Sheldon prefers to take a train with a pocket watch can be found in The Shiny Trinket Maneuver (S5E12): in that episode Sheldon bought himself a pocket watch and commented "I look like a train conductor" (with the pocket watch). *This is the third time that Raj is spending all night in the telescope lab. He did this previously in The Boyfriend Complexity (S4E09) and "The Proton Resurgence" (S6E22). **Also, this is the second time that Raj has had to ask a couple in his friends to take care of Cinnamon because of this: Howard and Bernadette were asked in "The Proton Resurgence". In both times the couple make a careless mistake in watching Cinnamon. *This is the second time Sheldon and Amy have had a conversation regarding sharing a room for their trip, the first time being in "The Love Car Displacement". Both times have resulted in rejection. The first time, Sheldon and Amy agreed that "we wouldn't want to jeopardize our relationship by getting to know each other too well", with Sheldon commenting "Nothing sours a good friendship more than knowing each other's toilet routine." This time, Sheldon was a little more concerned about cautiously approaching sexual intimacy in their relationship, all while Amy had gotten separate rooms for them both. However, whether or not the rejection in this episode may somehow change after the kiss is somewhat unclear. *Sheldon finally kisses Amy on his own initiative. *Cinnamon's vet gives Raj her phone number. *When quizzed by Leonard, Sheldon himself does not seem to be aware of the significance of his kiss in his relationship with Amy. This is quite analogous to what happened to him in The Grasshopper Experiment (S1E08): in that episode he talked with Lalita Gupta with pleasing words, and then the two had dinner together. While everyone else were thinking he was hitting on her, Sheldon himself was not aware of it. However, in this episode, when he kissed Amy, he seemed to be aware of the kiss, yet doesn't exactly want to talk about it fully yet. *It is strange that Sheldon totally cannot understand Leonard's "you dog" at the end of this episode, because previously in The Herb Garden Germination (S4E20) Leonard has used exactly the same phrase on Sheldon when talking about the rumor made up by Sheldon and Amy that they had sex, and that time Sheldon seemed to be able to associate the "you dog" phrase with their sex rumor. It is possible that in this episode, he seemed to understand Leonard's comments with both his new friend and his steps in his relationship with Amy, but in a weird way, attempted to associate the banjo player's music with the term as well. Quotes Amy: Bang! Splat! Thud! ---- Howard: Fun fact, I'm gonna jump off this train. Gallery ValDay.png|Amy dining with Sheldon. Vet3.jpg Vet2.jpg Vet1.jpg Loco4.jpg|Penny gives Leonard flowers and candy for Valentine's Day. Loco5.jpg Loco3.jpg Loco2.jpg Loco1.jpg vanity 444.png|Chuck Lorre Productions, #444 References * http://forum.the-big-bang-theory.com/topic/4037-season-7-taping-reports/ Taping Report by MJistheBOMB Category:Stubs Category:The Big Bang Theory episodes Category:Season 7 Category:Leonard-Penny Together